I have had the misfortune to find that some people I respected, I don’t respect as much anymore. The reason why is rooted in their knee-jerk refusal to wear a face mask, often for the thinnest and most transparent of reasons. And, I do realise that this is hardly a new topic and that I am a lagging and unimportant commentator. As someone with Multiple Sclerosis who looks utterly normal I am v concerned.

These reasons seem to mask, excuse the pun, a petulant and often childlike refusal that, ‘no one is going to tell me what to do’.

The simple fact is is that if everyone were to wear a mask in confined spaces – shops are a good example – then the disease transmission rate is cut dramatically. Approx 70% and that is taking into consideration that us ordinary members of the public don’t get it right all of the time.

Not getting it right is touching the mask, failing to wash it regularly and the like. Nonetheless, 70%. I’ll take that.

Wearing a mask is no more an infringement on your rights than not playing your music too loud in anti-social times circumstances, throwing litter from your car, being required to drive on a particular side of the road or covering your gentitals in public.

I can remember the societal squawking at some other large step-changes. Seatbelts, speed limits, the metric system in Canada: hell, the abolition of slavery (long before my time) if you want to be inflammatory. All of these events were met with many pseudo-reasoned arguments all purporting to be based in logic and common-sense. All bullshit.

So, all you naysayers, please get a grip. It isn’t that big a deal. You are doing it for other people and perhaps that is the issue? Other people, the weak and the vulnerable in society, are depending on you growing up and thinking of others for a moment. While you are at it, clean your hands regularly.

Can you do that without too much fuss? Please.

PS: There is no need to wear a baseball cap in such a silly manner!